Barnes and Noble may seem like an also-ran in the tablet game with Apple gobbling up the lion's share of the market and Amazon grabbing on to the rest, but the company looks poised to outshine the latest Kindle Fire HD models with some fresh Nook tablets. The first new model is the Nook HD which features a 7" display and a screen resolution of 1440x900. Barnes and Noble quickly pointed out that at 243 pixels per inch (PPI), the Nook HD has 25 percent more pixels than the Kindle Fire HD.

The Kindle Fire HD comparisons kept popping up with Barnes and Noble stating that the Nook HD is 20 percent lighter and a half-inch narrower than its main competitor. On the performance front, the Nook HD packs a 1.3GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. A microSD slot is included if you wish to increase your storage capacity beyond the standard allotment.

Nook HD (Slate)

The Nook HD will be offered in two colors (Snow or Smoke) and will be priced at $199 for the 8GB model and $229 for the 16GB model. The Nook HD will give you up to 10.5 hours of battery life while reading and 9 hours while watching video.

Barnes and Noble is also stepping it up a notch with a new model that is directly aimed at Amazon's 8.9" Kindle Fire HD. The new Nook HD+ features 9" display with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1280 (256 PPI). The high-resolution tablet weighs just 18.2 ounces and features a 1.5GHz dual-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM. It too will feature a microSD slot for storage expansion.

The Nook HD+ is priced at $269 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model. Battery life for the Nook HD+ is slightly below its smaller brother at 10 hours reading/9 hours video.

Nook HD+

Both new tablets will ship in October (you can pre-order today) and both run a customized version of Android 4.0.

“With the combination of the highest resolution screen, lightest weight and expansive access to content rendered in a digital quality never before seen, NOOK HD is the world’s best 7-inch media tablet,” said William J. Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. “We designed our larger format tablet NOOK HD+ because we think there’s big demand from customers for a super-light, extremely high quality 9-inch tablet, at half the price of the iPad. Both our 7-inch NOOK HD and 9-inch NOOK HD+ deliver an exceptional customer experience.”

Feeling like it has something to prove considering its meager market share in this space, Barnes and Noble is touting that it includes an AC adapter at no additional charge with its Nook tablets (Amazon charges $20 extra) and that its tablets don't blast you with advertisements (Amazon charges customers $15 to get rid of the ads).

Barnes and Noble is also opening up a new Nook Video streaming service which will provide access to TV shows like "Game of Thrones" and "Breaking Bad", and movies like "The Dark Knight" and the Harry Potter franchise. Other niceties include a growing books library, revised Nook Newstand, Nook Catalog (allows customers to browse retail catalogs like Pottery Barn and L.L. Bean), and a revamped Nook Store.

While Barnes and Noble may tout a pricing and spec advantage, it still can’t touch the Kindle Fire HD’s access to the vast Amazon ecosystem of apps and video content. In addition, Barnes and Noble isn’t offering an LTE version of its big tablet like Amazon, which prices its 8.9” Kindle Fire HD LTE 4G at $499.

"This is about the Internet. Everything on the Internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can't deal with the Internet, they should shut it off." -- RIM co-CEO Michael Lazaridis